


Built to Last

by TheEndofEternity



Category: Robot Series - Isaac Asimov
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Android!Lije, M/M, very gay
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-11
Updated: 2018-07-11
Packaged: 2019-06-08 16:52:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,034
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15247659
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheEndofEternity/pseuds/TheEndofEternity
Summary: When Elijah was lying on his deathbed, the only thing that concerned him was that Daneel was able to live through his death. But he had not expected to see Daneel's face hovering above his own as soon as he had opened his eyes.





	Built to Last

The first moment of consciousness, the activation of the sensory analog of the positronic brain, is known to bring great panic. 

Panic, however, is a term that is best used to describe a sensation of uncontrollable fear and anxiety experienced by a human brain. “Distress”, however, is a term commonly used in the case of a robotic brain, specifically applied to the positronic matrix. 

It should also be noted that while this particular artifact of activation has been documented by roboticists going as far back as the inception of the first positronic brain, and for that matter, the first positronic matrix, it had never been described as an analog to a human emotional response. 

Even with his introduction to Elijah Baley, who, on some level, had come to accept him as an equal, Daneel was still occasionally reluctant to apply these criteria to himself and his own responses. But in the case of Elijah Baley, once a human being, he supposed it would only be natural. 

And suffice it to say, Elijah Baley was currently in distress. 

\-------------------------------------------------

He was blinded by an all-encapsulating brightness, the kind they say you see just before you die. 

“Jehosaphat, Daneel, I told you to leave!” Elijah jerked recklessly back and forth on the examination table, restrained by various wires and implements attached to him. The brightness morphed increasingly into a round circle, artificial, with grooves and plastic. Not the afterlife after all. 

“Shh, Elijah, it’s alright. Elijah, please calm down.” 

In front of that light appeared a high cheekboned face, bronze hair, and deep blue eyes. There was only one person in the galaxy who possessed such looks, and Elijah had explicitly told him to leave the room so that he would not have to see him die! 

He reached out to touch his face. It was as smooth as he had ever imagined. The face softened looking down at him. 

“Elijah, this is not your deathbed. I need you to listen to me, Elijah.”

An order! An order, he should add, which was difficult to refuse. He had just been telling Daneel to leave, and now here he was, before his eyes, telling him to listen! 

He would have put a hand his forehead if he had the energy. But he was an old man... 

Except when he looked down at his hands, they did not appear as old as they should have. And Daneel did not appear as distraught as he should have seeing him die. 

He shook his head. “I’ll bite, Daneel. What the hell is going on?”

Daneel perceptively sighed. “It may take a long time to give you the entire explanation. I just want to make sure that you are feeling well and are not distressed, and I can then explain further.”

Elijah took a deep breath, although it did not abate his physical tension. He then noticed that he was in control of his own breathing, and could not cease to recognize the fact. He halted his breathing, experimentally. 

It was only a minute later that he noticed that he was not breathing at all. 

He brooded to himself, then turned towards Daneel, ever the calm and mediating one. “Daneel...”

“Daneel, why am I not breathing?”

To the trained eye, one might say Daneel looked flustered. Or, in Elijah’s case, an eye who spent a lot of time observing him. But it was Elijah who was in for a rude awakening a second later. 

Daneel gently place a hand on Elijah’s arm and turned it over. Pressing a very specific pulse point, just as he did in front of Enderby and himself in Spacetown in their very first days of knowing each other, he broke the magnetic seal that carefully held together the pseudoskin disguising the robotic components within the arm. 

Within his own arm. 

Just as he did before, Elijah fainted. 

\-----------------------------------------------------

When he awakened, there was no longer a revealing of his robotic components, although there were still wires stuck into the skin in ways which would not be possible (or sensible) within a human being. 

“So you’ve turned me into a robot.”

Daneel nodded.”Somewhat. I have not simply recreated your mind. You, and your personality and self, is contained within a different vessel. You are no mere recreation, so in that respect, you still possess a human mind, which is not artificial intelligence.”

“Contrary to you, I suppose.”

“Yes, Elijah.”

He put his head in his hands. "Jehosaphat..." It took him awhile to regain composure.

"Jehosaphat... I'm not even a human being anymore. After everything I said and felt about robots, I've become one of them. Like you, I...," Elijah extended a hand, which Daneel put his own hand over, "I don't mean to insult you at all, Daneel. I've always said that I don't consider you a robot."

"But I am a robot..."

Elijah scoffed. "So am I, I suppose. So maybe I should stop saying that."

Daneel gave a small smile. "I would appreciate it, Elijah."

"No kidding...," Elijah scoffed, "I suppose it's too late to apologize now. I haven't even asked, what year is it now?"

"It has been 428 years since the death of your organic body. Notice that I say your body because your mind has been entirely held in stasis."

Elijah gawked. 428 years! Which made Daneel over 500 years old. He was glad his dying words had kept him alive. Daneel's life was his main priority as he left this plane of existence.

Or had attempted to.

“But I wanted to di- rest, Daneel. I’m tired. I’ve had a long life and I’m exhausted.”

A wince of pain (if we can use the term) shot across Daneel’s face. “I don’t like to hear you say that. I value your life, Elijah.”

“Sure do, a hell of a lot to do this,” Elijah shot up and put a hand through his hair, a cluster of wires still connected to the back of his arm, “Jehosaphat, Daneel....” He noticed the pained look on Daneel’s face and softened a bit. “I’m sorry, Daneel. I just don’t understand.”

“Elijah, it is not only by the First Law of Robotics that I wanted to preserve your life. The truth is... not only do I believe that I am more capable of accomplishing the goals you set forth before me in your dying words being accompanied by you, but I... I simply wished for you to come back. I wanted to see you again.”

He was stunned by the look in the robot’s eyes. It was long ago (much longer now, he thought to himself) that he had decided that Daneel must have something like emotions, relating to positronic impulses or enhanced flow of thought-- whatever it was, Elijah thought, was proof enough that something was going on in that frustratingly beautiful head of his. 

And he was witnessing it now in those frustratingly beautiful eyes. 

Oh boy, Elijah thought to himself, I guess it’s time to learn another moral lesson. 

“I’m always glad to see you, Daneel. But the circumstances, let alone the implications here,” he sighed, now proving to be a useless gesture, “I’m just a little overwhelmed, friend.”

Daneel steadily took a seat on the examination table Elijah was lying on. He set a hand on Elijah's knee, a gesture Elijah appreciated despite his irritation. Deep down, Elijah knew he needed to calm down if he wanted to digest his situation fully. 

“I understand this. And it is also reasonable to feel a high degree of tension and anxiety upon activation, so I am not surprised by your reaction. In any case, I would like to speak with you further about my decision. If that is unwelcome...”

Elijah shook his head. “No Daneel, it’s not. Can I take off some of these wires, though? I feel like I’m back in the hospital.”

Daneel nodded. He went to work at detaching the wires from the inlets hidden beneath Elijah’s skin. The sensation, so foreign, made Elijah shiver. He tried his best to look away, but that didn’t distract from the fact that those wires were coming out of his body. 

Once Daneel was finished, there was no longer any visible evidence that Elijah was anything but human.To a stranger, he would appear as a 40-something year old man who’d stayed overnight in the hospital, as judging by his gown. 

“Do you feel any better?” Daneel looked at him with genuine concern. 

“Yes, quite a bit. But I think some proper clothing would help.” 

Daneel smiled. “I think that can be arranged as well.”

\-----------------------------------------

It had been almost 500 years since Elijah (or, rather, his human body and brain) had died. Shortly after, it was not Daneel, but Giskard who obtained his brain and preserved it, Daneel being completely unaware at the time. It was given to him about 200 years later, on Aurora, before they had gone to Three Mile Island, which is where, Elijah had found out, Giskard had met his demise. 

And also where Daneel had developed some form of telepathy. Which was another reason why Daneel was sitting here, in his own spaceship, far into the future. 

They had found a seat on the observation deck of his modest spaceship, Elijah now properly clothed and comfortable and Daneel sitting across from him.They were far outside of the solar system, nowhere near Earth, and Daneel detailed the story of how they had both come to be there. 

“After I had developed by powers, by the actions of Giskard, I had made a decision to direct my allegiances to Earth, aware of the difficult future that lie ahead as the people of Earth were forced to evacuate due to radioactivity. It was a positive in the sense that the people of Earth would spread across the galaxy-- just as you had started with Baleyworld-- but it would have to be fast, and it would reach an apex of panic once the radioactivity reached levels that could impart detriment to health.”

He paused. “It also become increasingly difficult for me, as I had no choice but to assist humans who had a very high chance of fatality before they reached their destination. But I was not going to give up on them. I wanted to preserve Earth because I wanted to preserve humanity, naturally, by the First Law, but I also wanted to see humanity grow and thrive, by the words you said to me on your deathbed, and it was by those words that I devised the Zeroth Law.”

“Once the evacuations had commenced, it became clear to me that I had a monumental task on my hands. A task which, however much i try to emulate your actions and decision making process, was made infinitely more difficult by my lack of strong intuition.That is why I chose to bring you back.”

“It has taken me considerably longer than I had expected, almost 100 years. Giskard was able to condense your collective memories, impulses, and importantly, your incredible intuition, into an artificial neutral net contained within a computer system. I knew that if I did not revive you within a certain period of time, the information contained within the computer would decay. Fortunately, I enacted the process of establishing and transferring your consciousness into a positronic brain quickly enough that, by all measures, there was 0% degradation. You are entirely who you were in your organic mind, and will remain as such as long as we take careful care of your positronic brain, just as you would a human brain.”

"How do you take care of a positronic brain? I suppose you have done the same for yourself to live so long."

Daneel nodded. "It is the entire humaniform body that must constantly be replaced, while the brain itself must undergo necessary tuning and diagnostics. As of right now, I perform these tasks on my own, and I can do so for you as well. Presuming that you will stay..."

Elijah had nothing to say. He was undeniably frustrated, terrified, and confused. But he also knew that Daneel did what he had did out of love. Something he had admitted long ago, to himself and then to Vasilia in a fit of panic and rage, that he felt for Daneel for all of the years they worked together.

And he couldn't abandon him now.

To break the silence, Daneel interjected quickly. "If you wish to go on your own way, I can give you all of the documentation and instruction required to perform maintenance. I will do anything you need, regardless of your decision. I understand if you are upset..."

Elijah reached over and put a hand on his shoulder. "I'm startled, Daneel. That's all. I would never leave you. And now that I'm here, and "young" in a sense, we can finally spend all the time we talked about spending together on the trip back from Aurora.”

“I would like that, Elijah.”

Elijah nodded, now crouching in front of Daneel, his other hand on his knee. “Me too. But you’re going to have to walk me through all of this first.” 

Daneel placed a hand on Elijah’s. “I have taken matters into my hands that I perhaps should not have. I will do anything I can to assure your comfort.”

They sat there quietly together for a couple more moments. Neither taking a breath. Neither making a sound. 

It was Elijah who broke the silence. “Daneel?”

Daneel cocked his head. “Yes, Elijah?”

“You spent 100 years working to bring me back to life.”

He nodded.

“And you’ve spent the last 428 years assisting the people of earth in spreading throughout the galaxy, just based upon what I told you? Did my words mean that much to you?” 

“They meant everything to me, Elijah.” 

Elijah softened, rubbing Daneel’s shoulder.”I never thought that you would do all of this. I just wanted you to be okay after I died. I would never doubt you, but...”

He paused, taking a moment to grasp the breadth of the work Daneel had done in the past hundreds of years. “Daneel, you’re incredible.”

Daneel smiled and Elijah pulled him in for a hug, which he reciprocated. 

Once they pulled apart, with Elijah still holding his arms, Daneel spoke. “I have tried to conduct myself in a similar manner as yourself as often as I could. Your approach of thinking and coming to reasonable conclusions despite the obvious, has always appealed to me, and I could never fully replicate it. It is in this respect that I find you incredible as well.”

“And,” he paused, deeply in thought, “I am looking forward to sharing more time with you, as I stated before. But there is something that I think is important for you to know first.”

Elijah sat expectantly, waiting for Daneel to speak. He noticed a slight blush (a blush! Elijah wondered when he’d perfected that reaction) come across his face. 

Finally, he spoke, “Elijah, I have spent a considerable time in thought, very often alone, in the past 428 years. I have been able to reflect upon the texture of my own mind, compared with those I have sensed and observed in those around me, and I have decided that it is irrefutable; within my mind exist something that must, by the nature of its change in intensity and sensation, be equivalent to human emotion.”

“It is not only my faith in my own experience that leads me to believe this, but how seamlessly a positronic brain has adapted to and integrated within it the intricate matrix of your own emotions. There is nothing prohibitive within a positronic brain to the development of emotions.”

“It is along this discovery that I have come to terms with the fact that there is concrete reason why I had always felt a lesser intensity of gravity upon my body in your presence, and my thoughts flowed more smoothly and comfortably. And it is only now that you are alive again and with me that I feel a similar ease, one which I have not felt for hundreds of years.”

“I apologize for the lengthy explanation of the manner in which my positronic brain operates, although it may be important to you to understand these mechanisms as well now that you must accept your consciousness lying within them. But the overarching point to all that I have said is that...” more blushing, “Elijah, I have heard the term used in different capacities, and I wish to convey one of the highest order. But I believe that from the sensations that I have felt, as well as the sensations within my own mind when within your presence or thinking of you, that I love you.”

Elijah stared blankly for a couple of seconds after Daneel had finished his diatribe, and those final three words, spoken so sincerely yet so matter-of-factly. He then started to laugh.

Still holding Elijah, and in being held in turn, Daneel gave Elijah a quizzical look. “I hadn’t realized that I had said anything funny. Could you explain your reaction to me?”

Elijah steadily toned down his laughter, then smiled at Daneel. “I missed hearing your explanations. You’ve always had a way of never missing a mark,” he looked down briefly, embarrassed himself, then scoffed, “I don’t know what I’m even hesitating for.”

“Daneel, do you remember when we confronted Vasilia back when we were on Aurora?” Daneel had begun to open his mouth before Elijah interjected. “No, don’t answer that, of course you remember. But it was on that day that I told her not to test the force of our love. And I did mean that. Daneel, I have always loved you. I just feared, on some level that you wouldn’t be able to reciprocate, or worse, that I could take advantage of you.”

“But Daneel... Jehosaphat, Daneel, after all that, and this, just the whole fact that you brought me back to life because you wanted to be with me, to see me and work with me... I could never doubt. I love you, too, Daneel. And I'm never going to leave you.”


End file.
